Race antagonism was injected in dramatic manner today into
the campaign which the National Woman's Party is to wage for the election of
women congressmen who will fight for legal equality of the sexes. After a
memorial service for Inez Milholland, who died Nov. 25, 1916, while campaigning
for suffrage in the West, the delegates marched out of the little
Congregational church at Lewis, 12 miles from here, and to the top of the
nearby mountain where the feminist leader is buried.

John E. Milholland, her father, had with him three negroes
who are his house guests, Dr. Emmett J. Scott, secretary and treasurer of
Howard University at Washington, D.C.; Miss Lucy Slowe, professor of the
department of women at Howard University, and Mrs. A. W. Hunton of New York
City, representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. None of them had been asked to participate in the program at the grave
and Mr. Milholland in the midst of the services, suddenly felt unable to
contain himself.

Duty To Speak Out

"Friends of Inez," he said with obvious emotion,
"I am her father and I want to say to you what I had intended to say until
now, as I stand here beside her grave. I feel duty to speak out. If I did not
think her spirit would rise up from the grave and say to me, 'Dad, why were you
afraid.'"

"And so I want to remind you that in the first suffrage
parade, Inez herself demanded that the colored women be allowed to march, and
now today we were told that it would mar the program to have these guests of
mine speak. I have nothing to say except that Inez believed in equal rights for
everybody."

There was a pause as Mr. Milholland finished and leaders of
the party talked together in low tones and a suppressed murmur ran through the
throngs of delegates.

Then Dr. Scott was asked to say something. "Inez
Milholland had the courage to face the application of democratic principles and
was not afraid to follow them to their logical end." began Dr. Scott.

"Those who fight for a fresh idea and for a great ideal
do not fear to be counted as a friend of the friendless and a defender of the
weak, and she was that and more. Howard University holds dear among its
traditions the unflinching faith and courage of the woman who in the moment of
her greatest triumph, forgot not justice and fair play."

The party workers admitted that Mr. Milholland's outburst
had caused them much uneasiness. Mrs. Gatewold Boyers explained why it was that
none of the Negroes had been placed on the program.

"We did not want it to go out," she said,
"that we were bringing in the colored people. It would be bad politics. We
want to try to elect some women congressmen in the southern states, and after
all, this is our convention-not Mr. Milholland's."

Miss Alice Paul of Washington, the vice-president of the
party, said:

"This
was arranged as a demonstration of women and it was no place for colored people
to speak. We have invited them to carry a wreath to the grave and their
feelings were not hurt."

5/18/08 John E. Milholland Added to NAACP Entry in Wikipedia as First Treasurer. Until today, the Wikipedia entry for NAACP omitted Milholland from its description of the founders. The founding was scheduled for February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, and this is considered the founding date of the NAACP although it actually took place in May. The entry reads as of today: "On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House, from which an organization of more than 40 individuals emerged, calling itself the National Negro Committee. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings. Also in attendance was African-American journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett, co-founder of the NAACP. At a second conference, on May 30, 1910, members formally called the organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and elected the first officers (as reported by Mary White Ovington)[7]: • National President, Moorfield Storey, Boston • Chairman of the Executive Committee, William English Walling • Treasurer, John E. Milholland (a Lincoln Republican and Presbyterian from New York City and Lewis, NY) • Disbursing Treasurer, Oswald Garrison Villard • Executive Secretary, Frances Blascoer • Director of Publicity and Research, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois."[7] ^http://www.naacp.org/about/history/howbegan/index.htm